This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: April 28

Aaron Sabato

Photo by: Joe Bray

April 28, 2020 | Baseball

By: Tom Jensen

CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina will begin to look at "On This Day in Tar Heel History", as Tom Jensen will share his memories as an avid Tar Heel fan and regular at Boshamer Stadium.

April 27
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to 2017 and 2018 for the start of a memorable top 5 opponent ACC sweep at the Bosh and something the Heels hadn't accomplished in Raleigh in over a decade. Plus quick hits from 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2019.

The Heels came into their series opener against Clemson on April 28, 2017 having won all their ACC series to date. But this one was a little different- the Heels were in the top 5- and the Tigers were too, making it the biggest weekend of the season so far.

JB Bukauskas was on the bump for the Heels and he had it going. A 1-2-3 1st with a couple strikeouts. A scoreless 2nd. A scoreless 3rd. A scoreless 4th. A scoreless 5th.

Clemson's pitching was even more dominant though. In the first 5 innings the Heels only got a couple base runners, and neither of them advanced past first. The Tigers hit a solo home run to lead off the 6th, and they led 1-0.

The Heels went down 1-2-3 in the 6th and JB closed out his day in the top of the 7th with a 1-2-3 inning of his own. His final line was 7 innings, 7 strikeouts, 5 hits, and only 1 run allowed. But for all that he was still on the hook for the loss.

The first 2 Heels batters in the bottom of the 7th both struck out. But then Brandon Riley singled. And after falling behind 0-2 Cody Roberts singled too to keep the inning going and put runners on the corners.

Tyler Lynn worked a full count and then drew a walk- and ball 4 was so wild that Brandon came home to tie the game. Zack Gahagan drew a walk as well to load the bases.

Clemson switched pitchers and the Heels sent up a pinch hitter- Michael Busch. I'm always surprised when I look back at games from 2017 and see that Michael didn't start but it's just a reminder of what tremendous strides he made over his three years in the program- his freshman year OPS was .690. The next two years it was .986 and .966. He grew a lot over the course of his career thanks to hard work and good coaching.

Earlier in the month in Tallahassee Michael had come off the bench and delivered a huge pinch hit that helped win the deciding game in that series. And he did it again here. He doubled to right center to clear the bases and give the Heels a 4-1 lead. Brian Miller singled to bring in Michael and all the sudden it was 5 runs, all scored with 2 outs in the 7th, to take a 5-1 lead.

Josh Hiatt came on in the 8th and when Josh Hiatt came on in 2017 the game was as good as over. He threw a scoreless 8th and a scoreless 9th to close it out. JB ended up getting the win after all following the big rally in the 7th, pushing his record for the season to 8-0.

The Heels only had 6 hits for the day, but 4 of them came together in the one big inning. Ashton McGee had the other 2 hits for the day. The top 5 win pushed our ACC record to 17-5, and the fun for the weekend was just getting started.

When the Heels went to State in 2018, they were trying to win a series in Raleigh for the first time in 11 years. Since that 2007 win the Heels had a 3-8 record there. And this State team was one of their best ever, ranked 2nd in the country- although the Heels were ranked 6th themselves. But after winning Friday night the Heels had a chance on April 28, 2018 to break that drought.

Austin Bergner had the ball for the Heels and he started out the game in dominant form. He threw a 1-2-3 1st with a strikeout. And a 1-2-3 2nd with a pair of strikeouts. And a 1-2-3 3rd with another pair of strikeouts. 9 up, 9 down, 5 K's.

State's pitching started out almost as dominant- the Heels only got a runner on an error over their first three frames.

Michael Busch led off the 4th and went deep to right center to give the Heels a 1-0 lead. And on the very next pitch Kyle Datres went deep to left to make it a 2-0 lead. 2 pitches, 2 bombs.

And the Heels weren't done in the 4th. Brandon Riley walked and Ike Freeman singled to move him over to 2nd. The Heels got aggressive on the base paths, attempting a double steal, and State's catcher threw the ball away, allowing Brandon to come in and score and make it a 3-0 Heels lead.

State got a couple back in the 4th but then Austin returned to his setting down the side 1-2-3 ways in the 5th. In the top of the 6th Cody Roberts knocked one out of the park to left to bump the lead up to 4-2.

State got one back in the 6th but again the Heels matched them blow for blow. In the top of the 7th Dallas Tessar singled and with 2 outs Kyle Datres drew a walk to keep the inning going. Brandon Riley singled to load the bases and Dallas Tessar scampered home on a wild pitch to get the lead back to 2 runs at 5-3.

Austin threw a scoreless 7th and closed out his day strong with a 1-2-3 8th where he struck out a pair, including his last hitter of the day. His final line was 8 innings, 11 strikeouts, only 5 hits allowed, and no walks. Quite a day at the office.

In the top of the 9th Zack Gahagan singled to lead off the inning and Dallas Tessar moved him over to 2nd. Michael Busch was up next and the Pack gave him a free pass- a year to the day before he was coming off the bench, and now he was getting 1 out intentional walks!

That choice didn't work out well for State. Kyle Datres got hit to load the bases and then everyone moved up on a passed ball to make it 6-3.

There were still runners on 2nd and 3rd for Brandon Riley. He worked a full count, fouled off a pitch, and then hit a single back up the middle to score both Michael and Kyle and make it an 8-3 Heels advantage.

It was a good thing we got the insurance because in the bottom of the inning State hit 3 home runs in a row with nobody out to cut the lead all the way down to 8-6 and ignite the crowd. It would have been an easy situation to completely fall apart in.

That's why it's good to have a steady senior you can bring in to calm things down.

Being a middle reliever isn't terribly glamorous and there have been few guys in the history of our program who served as consistently in that role as Brett Daniels. In 94 career appearances he only started 3 games and he only saved 2 games- the rest of the time he did the work in between.

And did he do it well- a 2.61 ERA over 148 innings, striking out 147, and earning a 13-2 record in the rare instances where he did get a decision. It may not be the most high profile role but his being so good at it was a huge and under appreciated part of our success during his time in the program.

So State has momentum, the crowd is going crazy, and Brett's on the mound. As a Wake County native this is basically his home game.

The State hitter works a full count and then Brett strikes him out, swinging. The next one falls behind and Brett strikes him out, looking. And the final State hitter of the day works a full count, fouls off a few pitches, and on the 8th pitch of the at bat grounds out to 2nd to end the game. Brett gets 1 of his 2 career saves under pretty memorable circumstances, and the Heels get their first series win in Raleigh since 2007.

Brandon Riley was the only Heel with multiple hits and the only one with multiple RBI but that speaks to the well balanced attack for the day- 8 different guys had hits. It certainly helped that 3 of them were blasts from Michael, Kyle, and Cody. The win gave the Heels a 17-6 ACC record, especially impressive after they started 5-4. And there were more good memories to come Sunday.

And quick hits from 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2019:

-In 2006 the Heels opened a weekend series in Durham with an 8-4 win over Duke. Benji Johnson led the way for the Heels with a pair of home runs, driving in 3. Bryan Steed (including a home run), Chad Flack (including 2 RBI), Tim Federowicz, and Josh Horton each had a pair of hits as well.

Andrew Miller pitched 6 innings to earn the win, pushing his record to 10-0 on the season. Jonathan Hovis retired all 6 batters he faced in 2 innings of relief and Andrew Carignan closed it out with a 1-2-3 9th, finishing the game with a strikeout of future big leaguer Nate Freiman.

-In 2007 the Heels evened the series in Raleigh with a 9-3 victory over State. The Pack actually led 3-2 going into the 8th but the Heels put up 6 runs in that inning and got another in the 9th. Dustin Ackley had a pair of doubles and scored a couple runs and Tim Fedroff had 2 hits, including a double, as well. Josh Horton had a home run and drove in a couple runs and Reid Fronk hit a solo shot. 8 different Heels drove in runs over the course of the game.

Alex White had a strong start, going 6.2 innings and striking out 11 while allowing only 4 hits. Rob Catapano came on to get the last out of the 7th and ended up getting his first career win for retiring that one batter. Andrew Carignan threw 2 scoreless, hitless innings to finish it and struck out the last 2 State batters of the game.

-In 2010 the Heels went to Charlotte and shut out the 49ers 5-0. Chris Munnelly had a great start, going 6 shutout innings and striking out 5 while allowing only 4 hits. Colin Bates got his first save of the season for going the last 3 shutout innings while striking out 3.

Dillon Hazlett (including a double), Coach Jesse Wierzbicki, Ben Bunting, and Levi Michael each had a pair of hits for the Heels. Seth Baldwin had an RBI triple and the scoring all got started when Mike Cavasinni singled to lead off the game and came around to score in the 1st, brought home on a single by Wierz.

-In 2019 the Heels beat Virginia by a 5-4 score for the second day in a row to come back and win the series after losing Friday night. Ike Freeman had 3 hits and Dylan Harris (including a double) and Danny Serretti each had a pair. The biggest hit was a 2 run blast by Jackson Hesterlee that gave the Heels the lead for good in the 4th. Michael Busch also drove in a pair of runs, including the first one of the day for the Heels on a 3rd inning double.

Andrew Grogan got the win for a strong 4.1 inning relief outing where he allowed only 3 hits. Austin Love threw 1.2 scoreless innings to close it out for the save.